12 Days of Christmas Read Alouds
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Break is on the way! This short little stretch between one break and another is quite literally my favorite time in the classroom. Exhausting? Yes, for sure, Magical? Most definitely. It feels like the whole school takes a big sigh of relief and relaxes into the spirit of the season. Observations are wrapped up, conferences are over, and fun is on the horizon.
I can remember being a kid myself and the great lengths my own teachers would go to in order to make the days leading up to the holidays feel extra special in the classroom. I have always loved being able to do the same for my own students.
This year, being home for the first time, I’ve tried bringing the same magic home to my little ones. They have their own tree to decorate upstairs in our play room with their ornaments. (My mom orders 2-3 special ornaments each year that symbolize what the kids are interested in that year, plus they make paper ornaments in Sunday school and what-not.) This year, I also wrapped 12 Christmas and Winter-themed booked for the kids to choose one a night as their bedtime story with me. I initially thought I would do this the 12th-24th, but I couldn’t wait. I’m letting them start now and collecting the books we read in a basket next to the tree. With the extra days, they can just choose one we already read to read again. It felt like a waste to do this and only read each book once before Christmas would be over!
They have these little “Christmas Buddies” to listen to stories with.
When you let toddlers decorate their own tree, you will find 2-3 ornaments on one branch. It is what it is.
I loved doing this in my own classroom. This idea isn’t unique to me. It’s all over the ‘gram and Pinterest. But if you’re not familiar with the concept, you choose 12 read alouds centered around the season, and you unwrap one with your class each morning either for your reading lesson or just as a special read aloud! (Disclaimer: I’ve had years where I could only handle 10. I also had a year where we only did 5. Any countdown to Winter Break will work!)
Something about unwrapping it creates a special anticipation that makes it extra sweet. Anything you can do to build excitement about reading is worth doing, right?? It is in my book!
If you need some read aloud inspiration, take a look at my recommendations:
*I am an Amazon affiliate. Purchasing these books from these links may result in me earning a small commission, at no extra cost to you. :)
To go along with these books, I have developed some read aloud lessons to pair with a couple of them! If you don’t own the books already, there are great read-aloud videos out there for many of these books!
BONUS: Free lesson plan for you!
As a thank you to you who follow along with my blog, and are on my email list, I have a free lesson plan just for you! I created a bonus book companion for Santa’s Underwear…a favorite of my son. (Are you surprised…a preschool boy who likes a book about underwear? Who would have guessed it!)
This isn’t a preschool level book, however. You can certainly use it with elementary-aged kiddos! If you don’t own a copy, click the picture of the book above to find the link in Amazon, or google search a read aloud version of it, and some kind soul has likely filmed themselves reading it. :)
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